No more zero days ⛔
Recently, I came across this mindset: ’No more zero days’. There is even a subreddit by the same name motivating people to dodge zero-days.
It instantly resonated with me for being the succinct articulation of a principle that I already adopt in my daily life.
We are often disappointed with ourselves, and consequently demotivated as well, when we find that we have not achieved anything of much worth on a given day.
At this stage, it usually helps to take a step back and calmly revisit everything that happened on such a day. Doing so may reveal to us that we did in fact work on atleast something small albeit meaningful towards our goals.
If it does turn out to be the case, then any such non-zero day is decidedly a step forward in the right direction. It is best to consider this as a win and focus on making the next day a bit better.
Alternatively, if we fail to identify anything substantive achieved during the day, we should simply get up and act. Act even if only through a step as small as cleaning up your room for 5 minutes or going out for a walk or a stretch. Do this immediately to make the day a non-zero day.
The purpose of this practice, of reviewing your day’s achievements or taking small steps to make a day non-zero, is not to escape from doing real work, securing a false sense of comfort or to celebrate hollow achievements.
The actual purpose is to gather momentum towards taking action and benefit from momentum already created by small yet meaningful actions.
The 'No more zero days' mindset makes us work towards goals that matter. On most days you will find that this translates into a significant amount of progress. On other days when the going gets tough, this practice could remind us to be a little bit kinder to ourselves.
Read more how to delegate work effictively